I was watching a Geoff Neupert video a few minutes ago, and your blog got another shout out, if you weren’t already aware:
2 Likes
@dagill2 How cool is that! I saw that initial review on reddit, but cool to see some cross exposure there. Appreciate the share!
AM WORKOUT (0510 wake up via Valkyrie’s alarm)
TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL GREY MAN Week 2, Workout 2
“VIKING RAID”
15 minutes
100m row
Carry 150lb sandbag
Add 100m each round
Notes:
- Slower than last week: was carrying the bag after the 600m row when time ran out. Given I’m bouncing back from the flu, I’m ok with that.
- I threw myself a little pity party this morning when I woke up, telling myself I was going to just wait until the evening to do this, then I realized I felt just fine and got to it. Yesterday was ROUGH comparatively. That night, I took a night time Mucinex and, though I slept through the night, I woke up with a bad drug hangover and spent the day feeling sleepy. Last night I went without the meds, didn’t sleep as deep, but woke up feeling restored. But it could also just be that I’m on a healing timeline.
- My back felt much better this week compared to last, most likely because I’m further away from that strongman competition.
- In general, I’m a big fan of this. I like that I’m getting in the rowing and the carrying in a single workout. I may honestly move some more gear down into the basement to add some variety. It’s just nice to include carries as a regular thing, vs something I only do for competition prep.
- Weighed 83.0kg this morning. I’m still in a weird place between illness, but I think I’ll need to start intentionally upping the food intake to match the training demands.
- Tang Soo Do tonight. We’re skipping Thursday, since we’re testing for a new belt on Saturday. We’ll see how much the family can do tonight as it is, as the Valkyrie is still in a bad way with this flu.
18 Likes
Finally got round to catching up on your log, man so much good stuff in here, couple of highlights - the comp: top effort glad to hear you feeling like a new version of your old self! Family training in both ABC and the martial arts is wonderful. That row carry work looks really good, break the monotonous nature of rowing, might have to try that at some point!
@mr.v3lv3t - saw you mentioned a 30 minute time limit training session, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention 45 masters by Brian Alsruhe - each session is set up to last 30 minutes (option of making it 40 mins). I ran it and it was a really good program, but it’s standalone rather than a system.
5 Likes
@alex_uk Always a delight when you swing by dude! Appreciate the kind words and kudos. Mixing the rower with other stuff always works well. I did the same thing with “Charon’s Trinity” breaking it up with rowing, burpees and swings. I’ve also got an idea to do something Kalsu style, where I set a rowing distance goal but have an EMOM timer go off that interrupts the flow, and use that to either carry the bag or do some burpees or something like there. Lotta room for fun in there. I ALSO have a cute idea to go full viking and mix the rower with the viking handle to do some viking thrusters, haha.
I’ve been kinda avoiding logging this, as I don’t really want to go down a dark hole on this again, but last week I made it a point to get in 2x15 chins daily, and this week I’ve managed to keep that up with 3x15. I’ve cut them out of the actual workouts and am trying for just a daily accumulation. Switching to the grip shirt has made this a bit more viable, as my elbows no longer scream at me from low bar squatting.
Also completely unrelated but fascinating: I forgot that I hadn’t eaten today. I used to hear people say stuff like that and it blew my mind as someone that had so much “food noise” it was like my own personal soundtrack.
8 Likes
That is huge for you! I’m glad the soundtrack has a pause button. I’m also not afraid to admit a spike of jealousy was felt at reading that.
1 Like
@unicornsandrainbows Very much appreciated! As a member of team “forever hungry”, I understand as well, and I’m hoping you’ll see some resolution on your end as well.
Which, on that note…
Nutrition Recap
Fasted through breakfast. Did another experiment with dinner and sliced up leg of lamb like steaks, gave it a sous vide bath and pan seared in the cast iron. They went about 4 hours, but I think more time would have benefitted them. Still enjoyable. I had a 16oz serving, while I gave the kiddo the piece that most resembled picanha and I made some piedmontese filet mignon for the Valkyrie. Kiddo had about half of theirs and then complained about some flu symptoms (looks like it’s still around), so I finished off the fat cap from their steak and had a small sliver of the filet. Served alongside 3 whole eggs and 5 whites.
7 Likes
A shared delight! The kudos and kind words are well earned, you are a rare man (in the best possible way).
Words to make a grown man tremble coming from you.
For different reasons (not wanting to feel burdened to “have” to do it), I’m giving myself grace for my routine building (at present soft tissue work and walks), specifically weekends - if I want to do it on a weekend great, if I don’t no problem. Weekdays are 100% compliance.
2 Likes
Words to make a grown man tremble coming from you.
Hah! Got a legit LOL out of me, and means you’d fit right in with my family. Whenever I go “Hey I got an idea”, my wife and kid both immediately go with “No, but go on”
And that grace you speak of is key. It’s amazing how, no matter how far we go, we always come back to what we are. I’m obsessive, and I know that about myself. Those habits that are supposed to benefit us will turn dark on me right quick. I had to stop checking my resting heart rate on my fitness tracker, because I was making it a game to see how low I could get it, haha.
AM WORKOUT (0335 natural wake up, snoozed until 0400 alarm)
TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL GREY MAN Week 2, Workout 3
MAIN CLUSTER
Axle bench press
4x6x241 (smashed j-hook on 4th rep of first set)
(5) Texas Deadlift Bar Mat Pulls
15x440
SUPPLEMENTAL CLUSTER
Lever belt squat
4x10x225
Dips
4x10x65
Axle curls
4x10x81
ASSISTANCE circuit
Reverse hyper/standing ab wheel
3x15x360/2x10
Notes:
-
Despite the early wake up, I got good sleep last night. We’ve been getting to bed earlier these past few nights, as the family has been recovering from illness, and last night the kiddo came down with what we all had. So still netted about the same amount of total rest, and woke up feeling ready and recharged. I’m also over the flu, from what I can tell.
-
Smashed the hell out of the j-hook on the first set, which is indicative of being out of practice with the bench. But also a great sign that the pec has healed, because that kind of chaos would have really torn it up otherwise.
-
Those mat pulls were unique. The first rep felt rougher than last week: more a pull than a squeeze off the mats. And as that happened, I thought to myself “ok (tap), this is going to be (tap) a rough set (tap), so I’m just (tap) going to see (tap) how it goes (tap) but the big (tap) thing is that (tap) I need to not hurt my hip (tap) holy crap that’s 9 reps and I haven’t breathed yet (EXHALE tap), wtf is going on?(tap)” And suddenly I was 12 reps deep and matching last week’s 15 came relatively easy. As the set ended, I was at a crossroads, as I DIDN’T blow up my hip and I COULD have gone for another set…but decided discretion was the better part of valor, especially with our belt test at the end of this week.
-
The curls continue to prove delightfully challenging. Despite my torn bicep, I may still have some room to grow here.
-
We skipped TSD last night and are going to waive off the rest of the week unti lthe test at this point.
-
Weighed 82.6kg this morning. I’m the second week in to the mass protocol:
Threw in a tin of sardines onto my planned breakfast this morning.
14 Likes
Nutrition Recap
Breakfast was 14oz of leg of lamb, a tin of sardines, some beef liver, 3 whole eggs and 5 whites.
Dinner was a leftovers night. For a pro-tip for leftovers night: make yourself an extra steak the night before. Had that, alongside some of the leftovers from my kiddo and the Valkyrie’s filet mignon, a piece of Korean BBQ spam, 3 whole eggs and 5 whites.
Also got a new coffee mug for work. It suits me.
10 Likes
AM WORKOUT (0510 wake up via Valkyrie’s alarm)
TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL GREY MAN Week 2, Workout 4
“ROW ROW ROW YOUR BLOAT”
20 minute recovery row
Notes:
- This is traditionally my ruck day, but with our Tang Soo Do belt test on Saturday, I know I’m going to have a 2 hour workout ahead of me, and didn’t feel the need to stack up on that. And being in a recovery state from the flu, this seemed prudent as well. I have a 10 mile race coming up next month, so it’d be good to get in some manner of mileage, but I may also just join the Valkyrie for some long runs here and there.
- Body is feeling much better compared to last week.
- Weighed 82.9kg this morning.
- In-laws coming in today for the weekend, so a little more chaos than usual.
- Still keeping up with the daily chins and no elbow pain. Really kicking myself for not figuring out this grip shirt thing earlier.
- After observing a 2.8kg loss over the span of 9 years, I think we can safely rule out the “Vending machine chicken samosa diet”
9 Likes
A coffee mug, and a weapon. Good choice!
1 Like
Helps me fight my way away from the coffee machine, haha.
It’s been the one big detriment to me bringing back my coffee habit: work place small talk.
2 Likes
How do you warm up your leftover steak?
In this case, I threw it on the pan after I cooked the eggs and let it heat up a little. Reheated steak doesn’t taste great to me, so I tend to eat it on the colder side.
1 Like
Think I’ll stay out of that journal!
2 Likes
I was curious who/how to notify in that regard, and really wanted to bring you in on it, so I’m glad you found that little throwaway punchline, haha. I try not to be too ugly, but that one just gets under my skin when I think of how much we as a community tried to help.
1 Like
When I first saw this, I thought it was one of those 20lb coffee mugs and just thought “Yeah that suits him”
1 Like
Those seem so stupid to me, haha. I liked finding a company that was wiling to co-opt the design without the weight.
1 Like
Yup, I always try and be decent with people, but definitely some frustration from me in that thread, like you said a huge amount of help. Really just quite sad to see someone struggling with weight related health issues, post on here like they want to change and then make absolutely no effort to do so, whilst continuing to post consistently for best part of a decade.
I think you said something in your blog about it, but if you can’t even make the effort for your bride to be, how committed are you really to her or even yourself. Just given up on trying to change, whilst doing just enough to salve the guilt.
I was hoping that he may even use glps - I get the reticence to use drugs, I really do, and I admire the desire to take the harder path, but when you’ve proven yourself unable and unwilling to change and staring down life threatening conditions then really that’s the time when you really should be using them. It’s like saying no thrombolytics mid stroke because you don’t like meds - it’s already too late when you’re mid health crisis to deal with it with lifestyle changes.
Yea might have got under my skin too! 
2 Likes
That’s hilarious. I have the same one. Friends gave it to me as a gift.
1 Like